Photographer Spencer Tunick settles into new studio

The artist famed for his nude installations will be an artist-in-residence in suburban New York.

Spencer Tunick’s 2011 installation of about 1,200 nudes in the Dead Sea was made in part to raise awareness about increasing numbers of sinkholes that are drying up in the Dead Sea.(Photo: Gannett/The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News)

Tunick, a photographer, stages nude installations against natural and man-made backgrounds; from Aletsch, a glacier in Switerland, to the Zocolo, the square in the heart of Mexico City, where 18,000 people once dropped their clothes in piles across the street and posed in unison for three hours until the sun started shining into Tunick's lens.

His unusual medium — the human body — has brought him both persecution and adoration. In the 1990s, he was arrested five times and denied a permit to shoot on New York City streets, even after the Supreme Court upheld his right to work; in 2002, La Tecera, Chile's national newspaper, named him Man of the Year because, it said, his work inspired a national debate about personal and political freedom.

He's organized and has photographed more than 100 group installations, and much of his work these days is commissioned by museums or organizations, which do the legwork of securing permission and recruiting volunteers. But this grand-scale artist is settling into a small-town home: He's becoming artist-in-residence at Garner Arts Center in Garnerville, N.Y., which is undergoing a campaign for renovations as a state-of-the art gallery and exhibition space, with working artist studios.

Tunick recently published his first book, European Installations, a limited edition, which he self-published, even though some of the top houses in the world had wooed him. "I felt that in this day and age, you can self-publish and actually make money from a book instead of just being happy that you're getting a book."

Tunick has a black-and-white darkroom at the Garner center, where he will print his next book, and an exhibition space devoted solely to his work, which will be open to the public once a month.

Spencer Tunick, an international photographer who takes photos of hundreds of nude people set against famous places, was photographed in his studio at Garner Arts Center in Garnerville, N.Y., on Oct. 1, 2013.(Photo: Gannett/Carucha L. Meuse, The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News)

Here are 10 things you might like to know about Tunick.

1. He is a fourth-generation photographer. His great-grandfather owned the first Kodak photo finishing plant in downtown New York, where the Freedom Tower now stands. His grandfather was a photographer for the United Nations Council on Foreign Relations, photographing heads of state, like President John F. Kennedy and Fidel Castro. And his father photographed guests at hotels in the Catskills in the 1960s and '70s, selling them back their photos in key-chain viewers. And art appears to run in the family. This week, his two daughters, Seda Moon, 8, and Isla Sun, 6, opened their first show: at the Suffern library. It's on through this month.

2. Fascinated by natural hot springs, he has gone on several trips just to visit as many as possible. He has soaked in Japan, Iceland the American Southwest and Mexico, among others. "It's just such an incredible feeling to soak in water that's natural, where there aren't too many people around. It's a communal experience, with nature and your body. It's very peaceful, and you have a destination, but when you get there, it's not just about looking — it's about relaxing in bubbling water."

3. Lady Gaga wrote her college thesis at NYU on Tunick's work. "I've never met her," he says. "And when I found out, I was pretty honored. It's a nice talking point to people. And you can see she's getting naked more and more. Maybe I had a little bit to do with that?"

4. He lives in a 100-year-old house in Suffern, N.Y., nestled among three churches and the police station (he feels very safe), and loves that within a few minutes, he can walk to the train or the bus, or to the Bear Mountain trail and scramble up the rocks for a nice mountain climb. But, he says, "no one knows you can have this incredibly fast train ride into the city!" he says.

5. The United Nations, where his grandfather had been a photographer, was the site of his first group installation. He was living in the East Village, working on a portrait series of individual nudes on the street. So many people volunteered to be subjects that he decided to ask everyone to come at once.

6. After a decade of wearing only black, he recently added yellow to his wardrobe. "I knew I was going to Burning Man," he says of the festival held in the Nevada desert each summer, "and I didn't want to dress up like Mad Max or Conan the Barbarian. So I bought a yellow hat." Then he dyed some white boxers yellow. Then he "went crazy on Amazon" and bought every yellow camping item, piece of clothing, set of dinnerware and accessory he could find. "I became Yellow Man at Burning Man. So I'm still wearing yellow T-shirts and belts."

7. Tunick spends his summers with his family — his wife, Kristin Bowler, and their two daughters — in the picturesque town of San Miguel de Allende in the central mountain region of Mexico. One of his biggest collectors extends an offer to stay at boutique Hotel Matilda, which has wallpapered its bar area with Tunick's photographs. The compound where he stays has five private houses and two pools. Plus, says Tunick, "babysitters are pretty reasonable so we're able to go out a little bit more."

8. "The Good, the Bad and the Visionary," a show now hanging at the Chapel of Jimmy Ray Gallery, Anado McLauchlin's handmade art space in La Cieneguita, Mexico, is Tunick's collaboration with singer-songwriter-artist Joseph Arthur. Tunick painted 15 women white, then Arthur painted black line art on their bodies, then Tunick photographed the women and printed on canvas. Then Arthur painted on the canvases.

9. He graduated from New York Military Academy in Cornwall, N.Y., as captain of the band, in charge of about 50 musicians. He says he daydreamed a lot, but he thinks part of the reason he's able to organize big masses of people for his installations today is because of what he learned in high school. "Maybe I wouldn't be doing the art that I love right now if I hadn't gone there," he says.

10. He played college basketball at Emerson, until he broke his leg in a game against MIT in Boston. "It wasn't a very smart move," he says. "But I scored 26 points, got player of the game and had a free dinner at the bar Cheers." It was the end of his basketball career, though he still plays pick-up games with his wife's family in Akron, Ohio. "They all forget that I'm really good," he says.